I Don’t Give A
Forget the different formats, the clean, the explicit, the standard, the deluxe.
MDNA is one single album. It starts with “Girl”, and goes up to “Best Friend”. It is probably a perfect son of the digital era, as the only place where it will be a continued run is the digital download (can you imagine those iTunes servers, shaking and trembling and getting ready to serve hundreds of thousands of digital pre-orders when the album finally drops?).
As for me, one of the first things I’ll do when I’ll get my hands on the CD – poor little old fashioned kid of the PCM Wave era – it will be grabbing all 16 tracks from the two discs of the Deluxe package (sorry LMFAO, I love you anyway), grab the acoustic “Love Spent” from the iTunes pack (which will be a first listen to me), and burn them together on a single disc.
Because MDNA is a flow.
It is not sequenced (sorry, it didn’t happen after all), but it’s like if it was. The songs do not fade, they all have cold ends (thanks, Magnus, for letting me know how to call them), and the space in between may serve to listen to some chattering teeth. Because after some tracks you will be actually wondering “what’s next?”
There are a number of first impressions I was left with, and a week later some are stronger than before, and only a few disappeared.
First of all, the reason for I loved MDNA so much is that this album is SO Madonna. I know, it is a lot cliché to say so, but forgive me, it is still very true.
The, I love it is because this record is nothing like you’ve heard from Madonna before. If it would not sound so bad, I would say it’s 2012 Madonna. Reductive, uh?
The key I came up with is: do not compare.
There will certainly be things that will remind you of other things she’s done. It can be a certain beat, an instrumentation, the mood of a song or the meaning of some lyrics. But they all blend together as out-of-focus memories of a dream when you wake up in the morning.
Expectations for this album are incredibly high from every point of view.
Working again with William Orbit – who is one of the two people I’ve always heard the fans say M should collaborate again with – certainly didn’t help keep the anticipation at a reasonable level. I really don’t want to bring Mother Monster in, but MDNA being the first Madonna album after a certain little (?) something counts, too.
Still, I had the impressione that Madonna was completely free doing this record.
She certainly knew she was going to have everyone waiting for her on the line, ready to take notes and make judgements.
And she did what she does best: She didn’t give A.
You’ll be able to figure her working her ass out in the studio, sometimes having fun, putting her best into it, and torturing her producers, too (and we all would love to be tortured that way, wouldn’t we?).
I didn’t take many notes on my paper sheet while listening to the album, but one I certainly want to keep is “She has nothing to prove“.
End of Part Three.